Displaying items by tag: Robert Tobin

The late British playwright Peter Shaffer broke into new and radical territory with Equus. First produced in 1974 (and based loosely on a true event), the play tells of a grotesque crime by a teenaged boy, Alan Strang (Sean William Kelley is excellent) who put out the eyes of six horses in a stable. Strang is given a purposeful but extended nude scene, and presents us with his religio-erotic (though not sexual) relationship with horses. It tends to sell a lot of tickets.

Shaffer, who rose to even greater fame for his 1979 Amadeus – both a hit play and movie - was masterful in crafting “thinking” works. In Equus, he gives us the character of Alan's therapist Martin Dysart (Rian Jairell brings an understanding of the role), a figure struggling through his own dark night of the soul. Dysart feels he is on a treadmill, only healing young people who, as they "normalize," lose some of the magical and imaginative qualities that also drive their aberrant behaviors. 

That is particularly the case with Alan, who has developed an emotional fetish for horses in a Dionysian merger of the sexual and spiritual. But following the horrifying incident (it is shown as a recalled memory only at the end of the play), Alan is withdrawn, nearly catatonic, staring at the television, babbling advertising jingles, with difficulty relating or, understandably, recounting the event. A court magistrate, Hesther Salomon (Alexandra Bennett), brings the bizarre case to child psychologist Dysart, who must unravel what led the boy to his heinous act, and try to heal him.

But as he unwraps Alan's psyche, Dysart increasingly regrets his own station in life. “This is more than professional menopause,” Dysart complains to Hesther. "I'm jealous of Alan Strang. Such a fantastic surrender to the primitive!" 

Hesther's character as a fellow professional allows the two to comment for the audience’s benefit on the progress of the case. Dysart also looks for clues in the tensions between Alan’s parents, the excessively religious mother Dora Strang (Julie Partyka) and his austere atheist father Frank Strang (Robert Tobin).

AstonRep has given this production of Equus at The Edge Theatre much of the power that must have made the original so notable – using choreography and stylized puppetry (Jeremiah Barr) - with imposing horse masks on six players. As Dysart painstakingly works to get Alan Strang to open up, we learn of the boy's history working with horses, his love for them, and Alan re-enacts scenes with his favorite horse - Nugget – very well played by Jordan Pokorney who doubles as the stablemaster, Horseman.

In a notable scene, Alan mounts Nugget for a midnight ride on his beloved animal. And gradually, using hypnois and other therapeutic techniques, Dysart reveals Alan's skewed and rather sexualized worship of Nugget, who in Alan’s mind transforms to a horse god, Equus. Some of the therapeutic descriptions Dysart gives to Hesther sound a little dated, or even a bit offhand. Dysart uses the term "abreaction," something that dates back to Freudian psycholanalysis and is less current today. In describing his plans to trick Alan into deeper revelations, he sounds almost unprofessional by today's standards. 

There is an intensity and earnestness in the performances in this Equus – but director Derek Bertelsen needs to help the actors play off one another a little more, Instead, each actor plays for himself – though sometimes to good effect. Sean William Kelly as Alan Strang is a protrait of youthful estrangment, so his lack of chemistry with Dysart almmost makes sense - but seems unlikely in therapy. Alan's young love interest Jill Mason (Malia Hu) makes a good match with a nice frisson. By contrast, in scenes with Dysart it is as though the actors are in two different plays. 

Julie Partyka is compelling as Alan's mother Dora. “I’m a parent. We gave him the best we could. Whatever has happened has happened because Allen is ’him.’ He is not just the sum of us added up. The devil isn’t what mommy said or daddy said."

Where this Equus stumbles – and perhaps it was just the performance I saw - was in hearing and understanding the power of Martin Dysart’s internal struggle. Jairell gave us a rushed, and consequently somewhat monochromatic delivery. Even more so for Hesther Salomon – Bennett sometimes talked over the ends of Jairell’s sentences.

Because Dysart is so essential, I would love to see the language slowed down just a bit. Regardless, Equus is highly recommended for the quality of this production, and for a chance to see this ineffable work by a dramatic master. Equus runs through October 27 at The Edge Theatre, 5451 N. Broadway in Chicago.

Martin McDonagh's The Lonesome West brings us Coleman and Valene Connor, two brothers fighting continuously over issues large and small: which brand of potato chips is better, who of the two do girls find more attractive, and who really owns their house.

As the play opens, Coleman (Robert Tobin), the older brother is at the table with the village priest, Father Welsh (Mark Tacderas), who is wheedling for a glass of poitin – the illegal local hooch brewed from potatoes. The two discuss a funeral held that day, Coleman complaining to the priest about the lack of refreshments. 

“If I held the purse strings” there would have been food and drink, Coleman says. That complaint pales in contrast, or perhaps increases in significance, as we learn that it was Coleman's own father who was buried today. His lack of engagement with the loss of his parent, however, is our first signal that something is amiss. And somehow, it becomes slightly understandable, as we learn that Coleman has killed his father with a shotgun.

Father Welsh, who is also very thirsty for his poitin, handily provides the audience some exposition in this scene - recounting aloud to Coleman how fortunate he is that a witness saw him trip, providing an alibi that described the shooting as completely accidental.

Soon enough Valene enters the cottage,and the two go at each other, attacking each others' emotional vulnerabilities, and battling physical as well. Father Welsh is forced to intervene to stop them, reminding them of the solemnity of the occasion - about which neither brother seems to care. We also see that Valene has marked items around the house with his initials - V  -and we learn by and by that he has used his father’s death and Coleman's emotional state, to seize ownership of all the property from his sibling. How this happened is the crux of the drama, and we will avoid spoiling that.

Let it be said, though, that this worsens what is clearly a very bad dynamic between the brothers since their early years. Now Coleman must beg, borrow and mostly steal to wrest his sustenance from his younger brother. How this happened is a key to the intrigue of the play, and as it is revealed, we witness Martin McDonagh’s signature touch in a slow, unfolding of the plot. In all McDonagh’s works, we see a gradual reveal of the story, as he peels the onion – shocking and surprising us as the action advances. 

For the dramatic action, McDonagh’s characters are not merely arguing vehemently.  Colin and Valene are at each other’s throats, and private parts, with knifes, guns and fists. It becomes apparent that their father kept the two young men from killing each other, thus far.

Years of childhood enmity repressed by Dad come roaring to the surface, like a volcano erupting. With him gone, we watch in ensuing scenes as Coleman and Valene come perilously close to mutual injury and possibly murder. 

All the pummeling draws Father Welsh to intervene several times in the course of the play – stepping into the role Dad must have held. But this priest is a fragile figure, and he soon despairs of ever straightening out the boys, or anyone in his benighted parish.

“I thought Leenane was a nice place when I turned up here,” he confides to Girleen Kelleher (Phoebe Moore). “But then I find out it’s a murder capital.” Unfortunately for Father Welsh, Kelleher is a sadistic blackguard who taunts the suffering priest mercilessly, driving him further to despair. She also happens to be the local purveyor of poitin, on which Father Welsh is very dependent.

The brothers are chastened by Father Welsh after another neighbor commits suicide, and the two make efforts to mend their ways and to get along. But the deeper patterns of emotional dysfunction rise to the fore, and things go from bad to worse.

I won't reveal more of the story; go see this play. The performances by the cast are very strong.  The black humor of The Lonesome West is also part of its attraction, as well as the gradual unfolding of the plot. In his recent star turn, Three Billboards Outside Billings, Missouri we see how far McDonagh's mastery has progressed. This earlier work is a little less smooth, but is still a strong, if shorter, pleasure. 

The current production excels in physical performance, and this show is very physical. But it is somewhat hampered by the challenge of capturing the lilt of McDonagh's Irish English - the cast is consistent in their reach for the script's accent, but the language (and meaning) is lost at times to pace and cadence. Nevertheless, most of it comes through, and the underlying performances are uniformly good. 

The Lonesome West is directed by Dana Anderson and produced by AstonRep Theatre Company. It runs through November 18 at The Raven Theatre in Chicago. 

Martin McDonagh has lately become even more widely known for his screenplays, and is among those select writers whose byline can draw ticket sales. (He wrote and directed In Bruges with Colin Farrell and Ralph Fiennes; and Seven Psychopaths with Farrell, Woody Harrelson, and Sam Rockwell. His star rocketed with highly acclaimed Three Billboards Outside Billings, Missouri, which he wrote for Frances McDormand and which garnered two Oscars and won Golden Globe Awards. 

But before all that McDonagh was writing plays in Ireland in his native Irish English (he was born in England of Irish parents), set in Western Ireland, with titles like A Skull in Connemara, The Cripple of Inishmaan, and The Banshees of Inisheer, all towns in the vicinity of Galway and the Aran Islands.

The Lonesome West (1997) is the third in McDonagh’s Leenane Trilogy, perhaps the most famous being The Beauty Queen of Leenane (a Tony nominee for Best Play 1998). He set the very successful Pillowman outside Ireland, and A Behanding in Spokanee was his first set in the U.S.  All this by way of saying, do not miss an opportunity to see a Martin McDonagh work played live and well on stage in Chicago. 

What a thrill to see a costume piece with moderately contemporary dialog. Charles Hampton's adaptation of Choderlos de Laclos' "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" premiered during the height of theatrical decedance in the 1980s. Razor sharp wit borrowed from Laclos' 18th century epistolary novel about sexual conquest among bored aristocrats make this an extremely titillating and provocative piece. Just reading the text is tickling enough. The play garnered critical praise on Broadway, and was followed by an even more successful film starring Glenn Close and John Malkovich.

AshtonRep bites off a bit more than they can chew with their current production at the Raven Theatre in Edgewater. The problem with this production is casting. The role of the conniving Marquise de Merteuil is played with cool dignity by Sarah Pavlak McGuire, her composed cruelty is fascinating to watch. Unbalanced co-star and AshtonRep founder Robert Tobin takes up the role of Valmont. It's imperative that Valmont be a suave casanova, one who ebbs sex appeal. Tobin is neither. He also tends to misplace the dialog. He often delivers his lines with a confusing modern inflection on purposefully crafted antiquated phrasing.

Director Charlie Marie McGrath makes an interesting choice by changing the time period from pre-revolutionary France to pre-revolutionary Russia. Though, for what reason? Hampton's script leaves the audience with a powerful image conjured by projecting the silhouette of a guillotine on the background. It feels like a missed opportunity not to give this play the full depth it needs. The staging is well-conceived, running with the idea of a chamber drama, having the curtains drawn to accent scenes like storybook chapters.

All in all, AshtonRep presents a faithful production of "Les Liaisons Dangereuses." It's an ambitious play for an emerging theatre company to take on, but there is a great deal of chemistry between the female ensemble here. Hampton's script is sturdy and holds up well in an era in which most people are more familiar with the teenage re-telling "Cruel Intentions."

Through June 21st. The West Stage at Raven Theatre Complex. 6157 N Clark St. 773-828-9129